[Review-A-Wai] WWF King Of The Ring 1995

 Review-A-Wai 

WWF King Of The Ring 1995 Released Sept 20, 2009   --- Copyright (C) 2009 John Pollock and Wai Ting. All rights reserved. 

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John: Everyone, this is review-a-wai its John Pollock and joining me on the phone one of just a variety of reasons why i am very very upset on this sunday evening of where we are taping this. Wai Ting joins me, Wai Ting are you on the line?

Wai: I’m Here.

John: This has been the most difficult review-a-wai we have ever attempted to do and I know this is only number three but my god Wai, we usually do these on Fridays and this week Friday was not an option for us because I was gonna be away on Friday so we attempted to do this on Thursday. You have the day off on Thursday and being the good person that you are you came in on your own time on Thursday to do this quick half hour bit with me talking about a fucking horrendous pay-per-view. We find out that the audio booth is booked much to the surprised of both of us because we had not been notified of this so we could not use the audio booth. On top of this, I have a book where I write all my notes down for these horrible Pay-Per-Views and this book has disappeared. I’ve looked in three different locations over the last 4 days and I can not find this book anywhere. So i apologize if I don’t have the specifics on this Pay Per View we are about to review but I lost my notes. Then we tried to get a video camera where we were going to record our audio onto a video tape. That had excessive hiss to it, so we couldn’t do that. So you came in for nothing on Thursday. It is now Sunday night, I thought we could do this at 8 but unfortunately I came in while another show was underway so now its 8:42. We have 18 minutes to do this and I’m very upset Wai, because we’re going to be reviewing the 1995 King Of The Ring. One of the worst WWF offerings in history.

Wai: ....Yeah, um…. this is, this has been..probably be, your right..one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do so much so that I refuse to come into the studio today and im in the comfort of my own home, sitting on my bed, doing this review about this really shitty pay per view.

John: It would have been more fitting if we reviewed In Your House,

Wai: Ohhhh

John: Because you would be reviewing this in your house.

Wai: Uhhhhhh

John: Onto the 1995 King Of The Ring which took place on June the 25th 1995 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Remember that, because that does play into this later on in the show and this is the traditional 8 man tournament to crown the king of the ring. This was when WWF business was at a all time low. It was horrible horrible product and pay per view definitely reflected that and Razor Ramon was scheduled to be one of the 8 men but he injured his ribs on a house show with Jeff Jarret and therefore Savio Vega was placed into the tournament. Now, we did get the free for all match, Wai, with Savio Vega defeating Irwin R Schyster to get the 8th and final berth into the King of the Ring. This one went 4 minutes and 1 second: Savio Vega wins with a spinning heel kick. Was there anything notable in this match for you?

Wai: What was notable about this was that Stephanie Wiand presented it on the coliseum home video.

John: Yes, it was a coliseum home video exclusive from Stephanie Wiand featuring two men who are now agents. Savio Vega was just fired from TNA as a agent and IRS, Mike Rotunda is currently a agent in WWE and that is about the most note worthy thing in this very average..boring match

Wai: Alright

John: Moving on to the Pay Per View and Savio Vega immediately is put into the first round match against Yokozuna. We’ve got Jim Cornette and Savio Vega out here, two men who both been let go by TNA over the last couple of weeks. This match, Wai ended by count out. Savio Vega getting a win in 8 minutes and 24 seconds.

Wai: What I wanna know is normally they would give the man a bit of a more of a break in these tournaments. Why did they not let Savio at least get a match break?

John: Well he was the 8th seed in the tournament, Wai

Wai: So?

John: So by the very definition you are at a disadvantage. You’re not the number 1 seed. You’re the 8th seed. You have everything going against you. You’re the underdog.

Wai: Alright

John: You have to validate your response of why you are in this tournament. But Wai, did you notice the King of The Ring set and did you notice the two hench men who were opening up the doors to allow the wrestlers in?

Wai: Who were they?

John: This was in 1995 and this was a very very young Matt and Jeff Hardy.

Wai: No. You’re kidding?

John: You didn’t realize that?

Wai: I did not notice that at all. They did not look like wrestlers what so ever.

John: It was two skinny skinny 15 year olds and my god I looked more built then these two. It was Matt and Jeff Hardy and I actually knew this because they did point it out on either a Hardys DVD or something. Maybe a confidential piece of something that like but it was Jeff and Matt Hardy and I froze the frame to check.

Wai: I think you’ve offended Jeff Hardy fans enough this week.

John: I guess I should lay off Jeff Hardy.

Wai: I think you should.

John: He looked very clean.

Wai: Right. What I noticed most about this match was uh, its been a long time since I seen Yokozuna in the ring, but..
John: This guy was enormous

Wai: He was probably his keyfabe weight but im sure it wasn’t far off from the actual weight. It was 641 pounds. To see a man that size take bumps is an incredible thing. How does this obese man get a job thats so physical? My dad actually walked in, because my dad and I used to watch wrestling together, and he walked in and is like ‘oh, Yokozuna’. And then he asked me how he died and I told him to take a guess.

John: *light snickering*

Wai: So uh, Savio wins this one.

John: Savio Vega wins and the underdog continues. He wins by countout. Over to our next match in the tournament we have ‘The Roadie’, BG James. accompanied by Jeff Jerret taking on Bob Holly. This was quite the TNA theme. Did you realize this, Wai? We have ‘The Roadie’ who was fired a few weeks ago with Jeff Jarret who is on the outs with TNA preceded by Savio Vega facing Yokozuna and Jim Cornette in his corner.

Wai: It does not surprise me. I mean, TNA is pretty much made up of a bunch of WWE rejects.

John: This match, this is where the only thing i thought of during this match Wai was they were so gimmick heavy during this time in the WWF,

Wai: Oh yeah.

John: Where everyone had like, a part time job? This was a stretch for me ok? Because The Roadie you would figure he’d be on tour with bands if he is a roadie?

Wai: Yeah.

John: Did they ever announce if he was specifically Jeff Jerrets roadie?

Wai: Sorta.

John: How are you a roadie, like, what does that mean? Your a member of the production crew? Do you set up the ring? You get to Moonlight?

Wai: You set up the band. You set up the instruments. You test the microphones, and Bob Holly of course is a…...

John: NASCAR DRIVER, which would mean Sundays are the busiest day of the entire week. How do you have time to wrestle Sunday night after a race!?

Wai: I, Uh….what i’d like to know is..

John: I’m angry because when I was a kid I honestly believed that Bob Holly was like a two sport athlete. I thought that he really did like, drive cars and stuff.

*both laugh*
Wai: Oh my god….well, when you think about it what compelled these two men who are obviously very successful in their individual jobs..

John: Why cross over?

Wai: What compelled them to step into a wrestling ring to compete on a professional wrestling level?

John: This match went 7 and a half minutes and The Roadie, ...The Roadie defeated Bob Holly clean. This was after I believe Jeff Jarret tripped Bob Holly? Is that how this ended Wai? I don’t have notes.

Wai: I dont remember.

John: Ok. The Roadie won. We then go onto the next match. You got to remember that the UFC had just debuted two years prior to this event and the WWF’s answer to this new phenomenon was ‘Kama’, the supreme fighting machine, whose later went on to become The Godfather. He took on Shawn Michaels and..

Wai: and Joe Frazier was in the crowd watching.

John: That's right, they showed Joe Frazier to no reaction at all.

Wai: They showed Joe Fraiser and Joe Frazier had the most bewildered look on his face during this match.

John: What am I doing at the 1995 King of the Ring?

Wai: Yeah. His jaw was wide open and he is just watching this thinking, ‘woah what is this? What is this?? What is this that im watching?”, thats Joe Frazier.

John: Looking at the people in this tournament Wai, i would think going into this most would have assumed that Shawn Micheals would probably be in the finals of this or win the whole thing. He was out in the first round when he went to a 15 minute time limit draw.

Wai: Oh yeah, yeah. Watching Micheals wrestle and remembering that this is 14 years ago, Michaels is still very much going at this pace that he was going at 14 years ago. Its very amazing.

John: Micheals had a match all by himself for 15 minutes because Kama was just.., he was atrocious. Watching this man bump, just a 300 pound lug of nothing.

Wai: So this was a double draw and there were no, nobody advanced.

John: I guess this would be the best match on the card which is not saying a whole lot because as per Shawn Michaels standards this was definitely not at the top echelon. The highlight for me was the finish where they went for a horribly mistimed near fall to tease the quick count right as time expired and then they had a big close up shot of Shawn Micheals saying clearly the words ‘Bullshit’.

Wai: Yeah I saw that too.

John: Disgusting.

Wai: He wants to add realism to it. Maybe he was actually saying it because what sort of booking is this? Why would you book a double draw for something? Can you explain that to me John?

John: Because the man in the next match had to win 3 matches had this not been a draw to win the King Of The Ring and that was Mabel who was in the corner, who had Moe in his corner formerly of Men On A Mission minus, -

Wai: Hold on a second you missed a very important part before this match.

John: Okay…

Wai: There is a Bob Backlund video.

John: Oh yeah, where he was campaigning in Philadelphia and he was riding around in a buggy with a horse.

Wai: This was an amazing video. Did you watch it or not John? I thought this was probably the highlight of the whole pay per view.

John: Oh it was? Well you describe it then because I fast forwarded.

Wai: Well basically it was Bob Backlund doing his uh...crazy..crazy character...hello?

John: Yeah, I'm listening.

Wai: Okay, sorry. This was Bob Backlund, Bob Backlund was doing his crazy character and for me like this just seemed  like a very unique video especially in comparison to everything else that was on this PPV. Backlund’s delivery was so awesome and so dark and twisted. For this type of show, it was just a very weird vignette. It’s just him doing his crazy spiel about why he should be president and what America is doing wrong and then like, as he is doing all this he has these awkward stares and pauses and they're just creepy. I just found it so funny and so well done and just kind of ballsy to put into a show like that.

John: All Right.

Wai: Meanwhile you have Bob Sparkplug Holly on the same show so it's very interesting.

John: And our next match, Mabel versus the Undertaker. Unbelievable that there would be Undertaker and Shawn Micheals in the first round and both men were eliminated in the first round and Mabel got the win here. 10 Minutes and 44 Seconds.

Wai: Yes.

John: Mabel.

Wai: Mabel. Mabel’s outfit was so bad. How do you take him seriously as the heel or face when he is wearing like a purple jumpsuit with uh..frills.


John: And wasn’t he still wearing..uh....oh I guess this was before Undertaker had his phantom of the
opera mask, right?

Wai: This was before that.

Okay. I couldn’t remember.

Wai: Or after..i don’t..no...this is aft-….I dont know? Who cares…

John: Alright. Anything else from this match?

Wai: Well i mean uh…

John: I’m going to apologize right now to everybody listening. I genuinely try to have a more concise review but I do not have my notes and I am sorry but there was no fucking way I was wathcing this event again.

Wai: It’s alright John.

John: There was no way. This was the most painful 3 hour event I have ever sat through. 

Wai: By the time that this particular match had ended you had come to the conclusion that the winner of the king of the ring would have either been Mabel, Savio Vega, or The Roadie.

*John Laughs*

John:  Well they really left it dramatic there for the semi finals and final.

Wai: Yeah.

John: To the other first semi final then, Savio Vega and the Roadie. They gave these two a whole 6 minutes and 36 seconds with Savio Vega overcoming the odds. They compared him to Rocky Balboa with a shot of the statue outside the Spectrum and Savio Vega was going to the finals. We should note that it was Vince McMahon and Doc Hendrix on commentary and I was a big fan of Doc Hendrix during this show.

Wai: He’s good, he’s good. He’s definitely a talented guy. I think I’d have preferred the King from back then actually but they're both interesting. They're both good. That match was a really shit match. The Roadie vs Savio Vega. In terms of work rate the talent pool was so low in mid 90’s WWE.

John: It was horrible! Just horrible.

Wai: So the main event now, John.

John: Uh...well, we got to uh..

Wai: Oh yeah, thats right.


John: Remember, we got three matches left here. We go to the highly anticipated ‘kiss my foot match’ between Jerry Lawler and Bret Hart and they showed a video package for these two. This feud was TWO years in the making and they showed Jerry Lawler..this made no sense..he, for two weeks had been putting his feet in horse shit and walking around with his feet...probably obtaining an infection over this period of time. He forced Aldo Montoya to suck on his foot and then they showed him coming to the ring where the intrepid reporter Stephanie Wianne tried to catch a word with him and could not breathe. Why...this....Why would you do this?

Wai: Well, come on. This is...He’s uh...I like these vignettes. It’s very much like, old school.

John: So lame. And then Bret Hart cut the most serious promo of his life to build this match up. It was you know, a Bret Hart match on a pay per view and they gave them 9 minutes.

Wai: Lawler was pretty much the dominant one in this whole match and then Bret somehow comes back after ginfish(?) and Saki..Hakushi.

John: Oh yeah, Hakushi with Shinja

Wai: He comes in and they do the worst timed spot ever. It was unreal. Because it was the classic where Bret was in front and Lawler was holding Bret for Hakushi and Bret moves out of the way it takes like two seconds before Gingsay attacks Lawler and it looked terrible. And from that point on Bret hits his 5 moves of doom, finishes with the sharpshooter. That’s it.

John: Then he took his shoe off. Took his sock off. Then he stuck his toe down Jerry Lawlers throat. Then he left, and then he came back and said ‘no, fucker, you're gonna suck your own foot.’ And he pulled Jerry Lawlers rotten foot and put it into Lawlers mouth and then he started gagging and thats how this great match ended. We then go to the finals of the King of the Ring. Mabel with the assistance of Moe defeats Savio Vega to become the King of the Ring. 8 Minutes and 32 seconds Wai. 

Wai: This was a battle of the South Bronx and Harlem. Savio Vega from the South Bronx, Mabel representing the streets of Harlem, New York. Savio is like Rocky Balboa in this match and it's really really boring. The most fun part of this match was the crowd interaction cause John you said we are in Philadelphia,

John: And we got a E-C-W chant during this match.

Wai: Maybe one of the first in the WWE.

John: Yep. It would be. And this match definitely warranted that chant. This was capping off….the funny part was they showed the last 2 years and Bret Hart wins in 93, Owen Hart in 94..and then King Mabel…

Wai: That's the worst moment.

John: And we should go to the post match celebration where they went on and had to put on the goofy crown and the whole cape and then Moe read the WORST promo of all time.



[clip from King Of the Ring 1995]

Moe: HEAR-YEE! HEAR-YEE! As this proclamation STATES: Let it be known! From this day forward…

Vince: Apparently there is not a great deal of respect for this king by this capacity crowd!

Hendrix: Well they love the bad guy....

Moe: LET IT BE KNOWN! FROM THIS DAY FORWARD!........THAT THE W..W..F…..SUPERSTAR, KNOWN AS….BIGGGGG MABEL

Vince: Go ahead, please get this over with.

Hendrix: Thats one angry king!

Vince: I think the fans are even angrier.

Moe: HAS COMPETED AGAINST THE VERY BEST...THE WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION HAS TO OFFER.

Hendrix: I wouldn’t say he’s ever been to Evelyn Woods speed reading course.  

Vince: And Moe has taken great exception to this reception.

Moe: HE HAS THEREBY PROVED HIS SUPERIORITY AGAINST ALL WWF SUPERSTARS AND THEREFORE FROM THIS DAY FORWARD YOU MAY ALL BOW BEFORE HIS GRACE!

Vince: BOW!?

Hendrix: BOW!

Moe: BEHOLD! I PRESENT TO YOU THE 1995 WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION KING OF THE RING. LONG LIVE KING MABELLLL!!

*crowd boos as royal music plays*

Vince: Long live King Mabel...who would have ever thought that we would be hearing those words here tonight.

[End Clip]

John: His delivery was terrible. The fans were throwing garbage at Mabel and this was not good heel heat ‘heat’, this was just ‘you are fuckin horrible’ to the point that vince mcmahon during the commentary for the guy he has built this PPV around said ‘come on, get over with it already!’ He just wanted this promo to be over with. He just not impressed with this promo.

Wai: Why did Mabel have a big sword?


John: Why was Moe chewing bubble gum as he read this promo from this scripture? He was chewing gum the entire time.

Wai: Why? Why…

John: This all to set up a SummerSlam match with Mabel and Diesel. Holy fuck, was WWF terrible at this time as much as we complain about stuff today...

Wai: Yeah

John: Todays product blows away this stuff from 95’. It was horrible. Which brings us to the main event, we had a promo backstage with Diesel and Bam Bam Bigalow. What a team that makes. Taking on Tatanka and Psycho Sid. They cut promo’s with both of them. Diesel called Tatanka Pocahontas and this racist was the babyface in this match, your WWF champion.

Wai: Great.

John: Disgusting. 17 minutes and 35 seconds for Diesel and Bam Bam Bigalow defeating Tatonka and Psycho Sid after Psycho Sid abandoned Tatanka and Diesel and Bigalow finished off Tatanka. They did show a video before this match, Wai, where this match was necessitated after Psycho Sid powerbombed Diesel and Diesel landed wrong and shattered his forearm. So this program, the roots of it were on a botched spot.

Wai: Mhmmmm…

John: Between Sid and Nash.

Wai: Yes, this was your main event for the evening for a perfect perfect pay per view.

John: This capped off a horrible show.

Wai: Yeah

John: I give this 1 star out of 10 because of the Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy cameos and a ECW chant and that is it.

Wai: I give this a 2 out of 10 solely for the Bob Backlund,

John: You enjoyed that Backlund piece, didn’t you?

Wai: Well I loved it. I mean, for me like especially with last weeks show there is always an element of nostalgia there for me that you know allows me to really enjoy these even if their really bad pay per views. For some reason this one I could just not care about at all. I did not care whatsoever. I fell asleep and I fast forwarded to the main event

John: I fast forwarded through a lot of it, it was a really tough pay per view to get through so i give it 1 out of 10, Wai gives it 2 out of 10. We want to make a note that a lot of you have been asking about when we are going to be reviewing ‘Heroes of Wrestling’. It’s gonna be in two weeks, so next week we’ll have another show then in 2 weeks it will be Heroes of Wrestling. Wait for next week, i’m going to find something because i am home sick tomorrow and i am gonna just find something that hopefully has more value to it then King of the Ring 1995.

Wai: Yeah. I don’t know. Do people actually want to hear more reviews of the bad ones? Or do they actually want people to go to good ones?

John: I think we just need to find ones that at least have something noteworthy we can talk about. This was just such a nothing pay per view.

Wai: Okay, Alright.

John: Anyway,

Wai: Cool.

John: Wai Ting, with that said next week we will be live. We will be together to review a show. Hopefully won’t be over the phone and won’t involve all of the headaches that this week did. But what music should we go out with?

Wai: Uhmmmm...you know why don't you make a pick? What do you think would be appropriate?

John: I have this song that has been stuck in my head all day. You and me were at a party on Saturday night and I heard this song for the first time so i’m going to pick ‘ready for the weekend’ by Calvin Harris.

Wai: Nice.